K'taka: Names missing from electoral rolls

Bangalore, May 10: A substantial number of voters holding ID cards issued by Election Commission could not exercise their franchise as their names were missing in today's first phase elections in the city for the Karantaka Assembly which started in dull note this morning.

"I am a permanent resident in Malleswaram assembly constituency and seven members of the family hold ID cards issued by EC but our names are missing in electoral list," Mohammed Ali who said he was 'denied' his right told UNI. He however refused to attribute any particular party for not finding his family members name in the voters list said that the same was the case of his neighbour who belongs to majority community. Mr Tapan Basad, a central observer for the Sheshadripuram assembly constituency said that even though it was the responsibility of the authorities concerned to ensure inclusion of all the genuine voters in the electoral list. "Citizens also has duty to ensure that their names exists in the electoral list".

Mr B V Kulkarni, Joint state electoral officer while agreeing that there are several instances of missing of names in the voters list of those who holds ID cards issued by EC and said that it may be due to their absence while concerned officials went their home during verification.

It may be recalled that during his recent visit to state the Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswamy had issued instructions to concerned authorities to ensure that all those voters who were issued ID cards by EC shall have their names in the final electoral list. However it seems that EC's direction did not yield any results.

Hundreds of people also complained that they could not exercise their franchise in today's election as concerned authorities have failed to include their names in final electoral list even though they have submitted Form No 6 in time for inclusion.